A. Field of the Invention
Implementations consistent with the principles of the invention relate generally to information dissemination and, more particularly, to decentralized techniques for allowing web annotation.
B. Description of Related Art
The World Wide Web (“web”) contains a vast amount of information. When browsing a particular document on the web, such as a web page, users are typically limited to only viewing the web page itself. Supplementary information, such as information provided by other web sites or other web users about the particular site being viewed, can be difficult to easily view. For example, assume that a user is viewing the manufacturer's web page relating to a product the user is interested in purchasing. To see other web pages reviewing or commenting on the product, the user may need to separately search for other web sites pages that contain formal reviews or other comments about the product.
One attempt to allow users to annotate particular web pages with comments that could be viewed by other users when visiting the web page was the “Third Voice” browser plug-in. Third Voice allowed users to post public notes about a web site that could then be seen by other Third Voices users that later visit the web site. One problem suffered by this product was that comments about a web site were often “low quality” comments that were spammy and/or inappropriate.